I'm sure this didn't happen overnight. That being said, I've never had anything but good experiences with Trevor and his company, or Amigakit for the most part.
But, and I'm sure you saw this coming, there is a point to be made. I do find it a little low *if* the most recent pledge drive for donations by "SysAdmin" and crew occurred while a buyout/takeover was being brokered with the new ownership. A.org isn't a charity case, anyone with half a brain can do basic analytics math on the clickthru links and figure out the site may not be making people rich, but it's not a loss leader.
If I'd given cash to support the site only to see it taken over without virtually any notice or discussion and I didn't care for the new owners or the lack of transparency by the most recent owners, I'd be a bit chuffed. This being said, if you don't like something, go elsewhere or start your own alternative I suppose. Do I think the new owners will screw the place up?
I do not, but these people do have interests of their own and having a corporate entity on the masthead will have some effects on principle alone. Just like people would be a bit troubled if their local hospital was to suddenly be bought out by Pfizer, there's some conflict of interests involved - but it's not my site to run, so fair dinkum. That A-EON tag will have some effects even if nothing else changes here, for better or for worse. I hope the place remains as well balanced as it is, but as much as I gripe about the blue camp fanatics fighting with the red camp fanatics, I do worry that the Bluecrew will see this as a sell-out of their platform neutral forum that is A.org.
$16 a month will get you a host with unlimited bandwidth and better uptime anyways, when it comes down to brass tacks if one chooses to take their business elsewhere or start their own offering.
